Literary DNA- My 23 Writers That Made Me Me

It takes one to know one. Among the realms in which this truism is true is the world of the writer. Writers know writers. While science-y things are well beyond my decidedly non-STEM minded mind I do have some skill in discerning not just who is a writer, but which writers some writers read. I know there are companies out there that promise, with a spit and a promissory note, to tell you your genetic background. What though if we could list our 23 writing ancestors? If you cut open my writer’s mind and put it under a microscope, whose inky fingerprints would you find? I’ve thought it through, and have come up with my own list. I encourage you to do the same. It is, if we are honest with ourselves, a healthy experiment. If you’re so inclined, I’d love to see your literary gene mapping as well. I list these in a broad order, making no promise to being exact. Nor do I wish to defend these influences. I’m trying to be honest here, not put up a pious front. Here is mine-

1. RC Sproul– Of course no one else could top this list. Some of my favorite memories were those times when I was privileged to read his books in manuscript form. He is not to blame for my weaknesses. If I have any strengths, one way or another they likely came through him.
2. CS Lewis– Shocking to me that someone not Reformed, and so often so badly wrong, would make the list. Until you realize it’s CS Lewis.
3. Matthew Henry– I have more than my share of commentaries. None can hold a candle to Henry. He always got to the heart of the matter.
4. GK Chesterton– First a writing grandfather, as he would surely be first on Lewis’s list, but along with his “son,” tops in both piercing insight into the human condition and in the earth shaking turn of a phrase.
5. John Gerstner– Another writing grandfather, as he would surely be high on my father’s list. Absolutely penetrating mind. In person, absolutely humble heart.
6. Sinclair Ferguson– Greatest pastor/theologian, theologian/pastor of the last centuries. A pen flowing with the blood of Christ.
7. Neil Postman– Amusing Ourselves to Death made me a reader of substance. Which led me to reading more Postman.
8. E. Michael Jones– His capacity to connect personal history with ideology that has shaped the world is like no one else. He makes Romans 1 breathe.
9. Paul Johnson-Steady and fruitful from beginning to end.
10. Pat Conroy– Reading Conroy’s prose is like watching Liddell run, and knowing in both that God takes great pleasure.
11. Doug Wilson– Here I name the one who shall not be named. I’m no fan of the serrated edge, but his butter knife is as smooth as butter.
12. John Calvin– No one, outside of the Bible, has ever bound together more tightly orthodoxy and doxology.
13. JD Salinger– Dialogic rhythm like Thelonious Monk. Even internal monologues are dialogue.
14. PG Wodehouse– Joins Lewis and Chesterton in the Holy Trinity of wordpsmithing. Plus, no one more fun to read.
15. Dorothy Sayers– The Margaret Thatcher of writers. ‘Nuff said.
16. Richard Weaver– His dissertation is a eulogy, his most famous work a world-changing call to arms.
17. Gordon Clark– Greatest philosopher of the 20th century whose exposition of the pre-Socratics is a rosetta stone of my own worldview.
18. Gene Edward Veith– a living Paul Johnson- deep historical insight to go along with a style that goes down easy as silk.
19. Saint Augustine– The first to open vein and bleed.
20. Francis Turretin– Calvin filtered through the diligently ordered mind of an accountant.
21. Anthony Burgess– Lover of language and lover of humanity.
22. Ian Murray– Never once have I read a sentence from Murray and thought either, “What does that mean?” or “What does that matter?”
23. Jon Krakauer– I have zero interest in mountain climbing, disaffected youth, Mormon splinter groups or battles against Jihadis. But I love reading whatever this man writes about.

There it is. Honorable mentions to Philip K. Dick, BB Warfield, Kurt Vonnegut and Jack Kerouac. Let’s hear from you.